


A maruma ending

by marumafan



Category: Kyou Kara Maou!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 08:09:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9063607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marumafan/pseuds/marumafan
Summary: As the title indicates, it’s an ending to the maruma series that I’ve come up with. This fanfic is fast paced, novel canon, post novel 17, and also based off drama cd 71 which seems to contain hints to novel 18. Yuuram. Swearing.Headcanons: Waltorana’s hair color and hints of a yuuram sexual encounter -not necessarily intercourse - in Seisakoku.





	

 

 

He’s still not back.

 

 

Yuuri woke up before his alarm had a chance to go off; his feet were freezing. He had never realized that back when he had ‘bed-buddy’, his feet and body were never uncovered in the morning, regardless of the season.

Sure, sometimes what was covering him was the soft but heavy body of a certain blonde whose hair would tickle his face; but he was never cold.

Yuuri touched the part of mattress next to him, but the temperature made him quickly bring his hand back to his chest. Although it would soon be spring, Wolfram’s side of the bed was cold again; the sheets cleanly tucked on his side.

Yuuri curled up in a ball covering the parts of him that had been left uncovered during the night, the fire had long died.

It was so cold.

He snoozed for a moment before a cheerful Conrad came into his room to softly wake him up.

“ I can’t today”

“ Your majesty, what’s wrong?”

“ I just can’t go for a run today, it’s too cold.”

“ We’ve gone jogging on colder days…. maybe your majesty is already tired of me…?”

“ Stop messing around, Conrad. We’ll go tomorrow… maybe. I’m just waiting for spring to come.”

That’s right. Spring. Wolfram would be done with this whole inheriting the Bielefeld territory nonsense and would be back in the Blood Pledge castle, we’d celebrate his birthday and he would stop messing around at strange hours. Oh, wait did he… ?

“ And don’t call me your majesty, you’re the person who named me”

“ So I did, Yuuri”

I should be grateful that I finally got Conrad to come home. I should, and I am…. but now I’m missing someone else. Why is my life such a mess!?

And I’m not handling it well either…. how long has it been since Wolfram started ignoring me…? I mean I was in prison for crying out loud! How about pampering the maou a little bit, huh? And we never got to talk about what happened that time…. but I get it.

He rejected me on the ship. Then he threw me off the ship to give himself time to think, and while I was in prison he had his time, and this is where we are now. Talk about a low blow to my self-confidence.

It’s not like I’ve ever considered myself attractive but… I thought we had shared enough naked time together for nothing to come in as a surprise. The Japanese curse strikes again, how can I compete with these foreign guys…? If he ever dated anyone before me… no, no! Maybe he realized he didn’t like guys. Yes, that’s it. Must be. He was idealizing the whole situation and then when the time to….

“ Your majesty? … Uh… I mean Yuuri?”

“ Uh? Ahh! Hi.”

“ You seem distracted today, too”

“ Yeah…”

“ Is it still the same problem? ”

“ ..Mhm…”

“ You should talk to him, this is getting out of hand”

“ I know”

Don’t even mention hands Conrad…

 

——————————————————-——————————————————-——————————————————-

 

But sure enough, he was there for office duty and I was starting to get resentful. No time to sleep with me, but you do have time to do paperwork, huh? I should just declare this a holiday and make you spend time with me… So I see how it is… even trivial paperwork you don’t need to do is more important than spending time with me.

A dark shadow started hovering over Yuuri’s head as he stared at the person in the front desk. Gwendal and Gunter shared a worried look and Conrad offered Yuuri some tea.

“ Thank you”

And even though that 'thank you’ sounded like the gloomy voice of someone torturing a thousand souls in hell, it would do.

“ Well, it’s almost lunch time. Today I will also have to spend some time at Bielefeld”

“ Figures”

“ Excuse me?”

“ Uh, hahah, no, I mean, well, it’s work, huh? I guess you can’t get out of it.”

“ Unfortunately”

Yeah right.

 

——————————————————-——————————————————-——————————————————-

 

He didn’t even have lunch with us. How can he be so cold to Greta! My poor baby, but it’s his daughter, too! I mean it’s fine if he want to be cold to me, but Greta doesn’t need to get caught in the fire. Parents are supposed to leave their children out of their fights! But… is he putting some distance now, so when he finally leaves…. wait, who said anything about leaving!? He’s going to come back right? He does the paperwork to inherit the territory and then he comes back and manages it like Gwendal manages Voltaire from here. If he can do it, certainly Wolf… but what if he doesn’t want to… is he leaving? That’s it, he’s leaving, isn’t he!?

“ Otousama?”

“ Crap, I mean, yes Greta?”

“ So, that’s what we did in school this morning, will you be able to help me then?”

“ Uh… yeah…! Of course, I’m your father and the maou and…”

“ Wow!! You’re really going to be my subject? Thanks you so much!!!!”

Greta climbed on my lap to hug me….what did I just agree to?

“ Daddy said you’d do it”

“ Oh… you talked to Wolfram?”

“ Yeah! I talked to him last night before I went to bed”

“ YOU DID!?”

“ Uh.. yes?”

“ …”

“ Otousama, are you okay?”

“ Yes, otousama is fine.”

Maybe I’ll have that second slice of cake after all.

 

——————————————————-——————————————————-——————————————————-

 

“ I need to see the maou immediately!!!”

“ But, y-y-y-you… d-d-d-don’t have an appointment…. Sir, uh…, Lord von Bielefeld”

“ Do you know even who you’re talking to!?”

Dacascos swallowed hard, “ Yes, you Excellency!!! I just said your name!!! But without a proper…”

“ I will not accept a reply from someone of your stature, if you want to turn me away, you better bring someone suitable to take my complaint!”

“ Y-y-y-yyesss, your excellency!!!!

Dacascos shouted loudly as he was probably thinking that he wasn’t that short and that his height shouldn’t have anything to do with taking complaints anyways.

All four of us could hear clearly the scene that was developing outside the office. Although I had never seen Lord Waltorana von Bielefeld, the loud chatting that was taking place a few feet away, made it very clear it was him.

In that moment I knew what was going to happen, he was here to bring the beginning of the end. When Gunter got off his seat, I quickly stood up and gestured that I would go instead.

Gwendal, Conrad and Gunter all opposed using different phrases, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to accept this cowardly way of ending our relationship. Sending his uncle! The nerve of this guy… after everything that…. no… I stopped myself right there, not another thought.

I know not thinking things through is not a good quality in a king, but everyone always tells me I should just be the way I am… so, there.

I slammed the doors of the office open, followed by many loud footsteps only to see Dacascos and another man walking away down the hallway. The man turned around, and spoke in the voice I had heard moments before.

” Well, finally the busy maou has made time to attend this urgent matter, praise Shinou"

“ And… you are?”

“ Waltorana von Bielefeld, your majesty. We met at your coronation ceremony.”

“ What? You’re not even blonde… Are you sure you’re a Bielefeld?”

Waltorana von Bielefeld squinted his eyes as if to say, This maou is dumber than he is rumored to be in the high spheres.

“ Your majesty, as you know our mother always says that Wolfram got his appearance from her” Conrad commented politely.

“ But I thought that being a descendant of… you know what? Forget it. So, welcome, Excellency Waltorana. What’s the pressing issue to brings you to the noble Royal Castle known as Blood Pledged? I must warn you for I am not in the best of moods and if the news are bad I might unleash my anger onto you. ”

Yes! That’s how a king speaks!

“ Your majesty! Why are you keeping my beloved nephew from performing his duty?”

“ Huh?”  
“ Huh?”  
“ Huh?”  
“ Huh?”

There must be an echo around here.

“ Sire, after taking him as your fiance without even knowing him, ”

Okay, wait, that was…

“and taking his honor”

Wolfram how much do you tell your uncle!?

“ by not even setting a date for the wedding,”

Oh…

“ after forcing him on endless dangerous missions, ”

He sneaked into all of them… or well.. agreed happily to them!

“ finally you’ve agreed to him becoming the head of the Bielefeld territory, ”

I have?

“ But now none of the ceremonies can take place because you keep pushing so much work onto him ”

“ What?”

“ I beg you, your majesty, give us one week. We can have the ceremony, the signing of the documents, the introduction to his subjects and touring all the main cities in one week. We’ve set it all up. Please just release him from his duty temporarily, he’ll be back soon.”

The silence after Lord Waltorana’s words was deafening. No one dared to speak a word before me because everyone knew exactly what was happening.

This was way worse than I had imagined. He wasn’t just hiding things from me…. he was straight up lying to my face. When had we become that couple? Wait.. I mean.. well, fuck it, yes, couple. Engaged couple! Wolfram what are you doing to us!?

“ I will try to release him from his affairs, but I can’t promise anything. I’ll keep your plea in mind and will attempt to get you to formalize the establishment of Lord Wolfram von Bielefeld as head of the Bielefeld territory as quickly as possible. However, the matters of the country are of greater importance than that of its states”

“ I know your majesty. But please keep this matter in mind” he said with a profuse bow.

As Lord Waltorana was leaving, I couldn’t help but ask.

“ Why didn’t you send pigeon mail regarding this matter, excellency?

” I did, Majesty Yuuri. Perhaps some of your retainers didn’t think it was important enough" said Waltorana giving the evil eye to everyone surrounding me.

“ Thanks for letting me know. I will check into it”

 

——————————————————-——————————————————-——————————————————-

 

I waited for him like a hunter waits for his prey.

The elusive blonde was done escaping my claws. He had to come through that front gate at one point, which is when I’d be given a signal. Since it would be nighttime, the gatekeeper would light a torch and place it in the watch tower, which is usually dark. However, my mind felt like a week had passed since early that morning and my eyelids slowly became very heavy…. I dozed off against the window frame.

When Conrad woke me up, Wolfram had already been to Greta’s room and was wandering on the third floor.

I hurried down the hallway and climbed the stairs quietly. I thought Conrad would be behind me, but he wasn’t.

I peeked from the corner of the curved stairwells and caught a glimpse of Wolfram; his elbows on the window sill, his wavy hair floating gracefully, his eyes lost in the barely lit landscape of the city and lands beyond it. But this was no time to compare him to an angel! I, Shibuya Yuuri, would finally speak up my mind and stop beating around the bush!

I made my hand into a fist and when I looked up I saw green emeralds beaming my way.

“ Hi ”

“ Hi ”

“ … ”

“….”

“The wind is strong today, huh?”

I said as I walked to him, while he returned his gaze to the quiet city landscape outside. Eventually I found myself standing next to him staring at his profile.

“ It sure is ”

“ So… how was Bielefeld?”

“ Fine. I don’t want to talk about work”

“ I see….” My hand unconsciously caressed his bicep and I whispered “ Are you coming to bed? ”

He didn’t even react. His eyes and his mind, maybe even his soul were elsewhere.

“ There’s some paperwork I have to fill out. It’s late. You should be in bed already.”

He lied effortlessly. I let go of him and turned my hands into fists again:

“ So now I’m a child who can’t stay up at night!?”

Conrad, carry my secret to your grave!

“Come on, Wolfram. Cut the crap! What’s going on? ”

“What’s going on is that I’ve been busy with official matters. If you’re not a child, then you can understand grown ups have obligations.”

“ Oh, yeah?”

What was really getting to me was the unaffected tone in his voice.

“Say Wolf?”

“ Hn? ”

I made a pause for dramatic effect.

“ Your uncle was here today. I didn’t know he wasn’t blonde”

“…………”

“ He said I should give you some time off for you to go to Bielefeld and finalize the process of ….”

“I’ve heard enough”

Wolfram turned away and started walking at a brisk pace. But please, where do you think you’re going? I ran after him and grabbed the same arm I had caressed a moment ago to turn him around and grab his other arm so he couldn’t escape.

“ Tell me now!” I shouted in his face as he turned it away and remained silent.

“ I don’t even… What are you doing!? Where are you going!? Why are you lying to me!? And what are you doing to the pigeons!? ”

The pigeons part seemed to catch him off guard, as he instinctively turned to me with a puzzled look. But I couldn’t believe him anymore, could I? Who else would be making those poor pigeons disappear!?

“ You don’t love me anymore? Or like… I don’t know, ever!? Fine! Then it’s over! You wanna go sleep around, do it! ”

“ What?”

“ You heard me! Fine, go! Go with your mother on a Free Love Trip, see if I care! ” I shouted with tears springing from my eyes, streaming down my face.

“ I…” was all I could say before burying my face, now turned into a juicy mess of catastrophic von Christ proportions, right in the middle of his chest.

The arms I was holding onto extended to grab my waist and pulled me closer, and as he did, my body straightened up, my face ended up in the nook of his neck and I moved my arms to hold him.

I buried my face further up into his hair and whispered,

“ Tell me….. it’s an order…..”

There was only so much begging the maou could do. I needed to know for better or for worse. The reply came in the form of a soft sigh, that carried more air than sound.

“I can’t ”

Those words… Of all the words I was expecting to hear, those weren’t even in the list. The realization of what was happening made my entire body stiffen; my grip on him strengthened. I slowly moved my body away from his, and shouted at the top of my lungs:

“ GUARDS! GUARDS!!!!! Arrest Lord von Bielefeld at once!!!!!”

Wolfram’s eyes opened wide as he looked at my face.

I wasn’t crying anymore.

 

——————————————————-——————————————————-——————————————————-

 

The guards walked quickly behind the prisoner they were carrying to the cell in the lower levels of the Blood Pledge Castle.

A few feet behind them, Conrad and I followed.

What the hell were you thinking!? Shinou! Shinou!? And Ulrike? Yeah, she must be into this too. I knew she didn’t like me, always making me show up in weird places! Almost getting me killed that first time, too! But it’s not just her, Wolfram wouldn’t care if it was just her. Her commands aren’t hers, they’re Shinou’s. The only being that outranks me in the eyes of a mazoku. When we were in prison, Murata said Shinou was the one who interfered and made us show up there. He’s the reason we ended up in jail…. and Chevalier and the 'box’ being there…. it was all too convenient.

When we got here suddenly he had materialized using Ulrike’s maryoku!?

But Wolfram wouldn’t do this out of his own will…. unless… he’s possessed? Nah… that’s too cliched. Besides, it’s him, he just can’t tell me what’s going on because he’s being coe…

“ Otousama!!!!”

“ Crap! I mean, Greta, what are you doing here!?”

“ What are you doing to daddy Wolf!? And why do you say crap every time you start talking to me!? Why are you confining him!? Daddy Wolf!!! Daddy!!!!! ”

She tried to ran past us to get to Wolfram but I caught her and let the procession continue as I held her. Conrad looked back, but I signaled for him to continue and make sure Wolfram didn’t escape. He was the best fire user in the country after all.

“ They’re saying you’re going to kill him!”

“ Greta….”

Now I’m the one keeping secrets and hurting others… but it’s for her own good…… Is that what you thought too, Wolf?

“ Listen to your otousan, okay?”

“ But!”

“ Listen!”

Greta’s eyes opened wide. It was the first and only time I would raise my voice to her. I knelt and took her head in my hands, her bronze locks entwined with my fingers.

“ You can’t listen to anything anyone says, okay? And I need you to do something for me, yes?”

Greta nodded, looking up.

“ Go to Anissina’s laboratory. You go there and you stay with Anissina until I come get you.”

“ But”

“You will stay there until I come get you, and I promise….- I curved my back to kiss the top of her head - I promise… it’s all going to be all right. Do you understand ? ”

“ …..”

“ I promise”

“Yes, otousama”

“ You will stay in the lab until I come get you”

“ I will stay in the lab until you come get me”

She repeated obediently with tears in her eyes and threw her arms around me. Ah, Greta, father sure needs that support from you…. but I also need you to be safe.

Be safe, my little princess.

When she was done hugging me, she let go and looked at the floor. For a second I could swear I saw a glimpse of Gwendal’s frown on her face. She looked up, wiped her tears and simply said:

“Otousama, I trust you”

Yes, you do that.

She ran in the direction of the laboratory.

God if you’re there, it’s me, the demon king.

Just… protect this child somehow.

 

——————————————————-——————————————————-——————————————————-

 

“ What do you mean you didn’t sink the box!? ”

“ Well, your majesty, it’s just …”

“ How did this even happen!? What’s going on!?”

“ Gunter, you bastard” Gwendal started shaking Gunter, his arms flailing about.

“ What were we to do!? His majesty Shinou asked us not to say anything”

“ Okay, okay” Murata interrupted “ So 'Inferno on the Tundra’ is in that space where he kept me when I traveled with the piece of the box. The box is there and…. Lord von Bielefeld has been doing what exactly? Practicing with it?”

“ It appears so. Majesty Shinou said that with practice the box could be controlled properlyyyyy… Gwendaaaaaal, will you stop shaking meeeeee!? ”

“ Yuuri Heika?”

“ Yeah, let him go… He’s just another victim in all of this.”

“ Your majesty, if I may”- Gunter continued straightening up his clothes- “You might be overreacting. Majesty Shinou’s point of view might differ from yours, but he’s the father of Shin Makoku! He defended the world against the soushus, created Shin Makoku and…”

“.. and he probably thinks he has the right to destroy it, too”

“ Daikenja! How could you say that!? It’s blas….”

“ Don’t even go there, Lord von Christ” - It seems even Murata was having none of it.

“ I knew something was going on… and that is why I asked Gurie-chan to investigate”

“ Josak!”

“Bocchan! Yes, I knew Lord von Bielefeld was going to Shinou’s Shrine almost daily, but I couldn’t even figure out how he was getting in. The carriage that was supposed to take him to Bielefeld would always be driven by a Bielefeld soldier, so I’m assuming…”

“ Wait, wait.. you two knew he wasn’t going to Bielefeld? Murata!?”

“ I was trying to collect enough information before I…”

“ OKAY! That’s enough!!! What else!? What other secrets are you all keeping from me!? Conrad!?”

“ My coffee plantation is dying out, how can this Ala…”

“ Don’t you dare finish that! Gwendal!?”

“ Greta walked in on Anissina and I when you were in Seisakoku”

“ For the love of…..! I am this close of losing it and letting the maou take over!”

I shouted holding my index finger and thumb with minimal distance between them up in the air.

“ Okay… so what do we do?”

“ For the time being you’ve contained Lord von Bielefeld, which was the best course of action”

“ I mean… how do we defeat Shinou….?”

“ Defeat Shinou!?”  
“ Defeat Shinou!?”  
“ Defeat Shinou!?”  
“ Defeat Shinou!?”  
“ Defeat Shinou!?”

This echo is getting worse, I need to look into remodeling the castle once this is over.

“ Well, he’s gotten my so called 'closest aids’ to collaborate with him, disobey my orders, put Wolfram in danger, and is training him to use one of the forbidden boxes, am I the only one who’s seeing him as a threat? Maybe old grandpa Shinou is finally losing it”

“ …………. ”

“ So? Murata you know him best.”

“ He’s war inclined and more powerful than any of us. I don’t even know what you mean by defeating him… Kill him?”

“ After 4000 years I wouldn’t call it killing him. More like letting nature take its natural course”

“ So killing him.”

“ Or locking him away, where he can’t hurt anyone”

“ Your majesty, this is the forefather of….”

“ Gunter there is something very wrong with this picture and you know it. Even mazoku who live for a long time do not live forever! And now he’s trying to control the forbidden boxes. These ominous boxes that were never meant to be used. The ones that contain the soushus that tried to destroy the entire world. And this weird ghost comes out of literally nowhere and you’re all obeying him.”

“ But he is…”

“ He is something that shouldn’t exist. How can his consciousness persist after four thousand years!?”

“ Uhhhhm”

“ And what you have is weird too, Murata! And whatever it is, he probably gave it to you. I know you don’t want to say it, but I’m pretty sure that’s how it is.”

“ Your majesty”

“ We need to come up with a plan, but before that, I need to know who is willing to participate”

Once again, silence befell the crowd. Then, one at the time, they agreed to participate.

Gunter was the last one to accept.

 

——————————————————-——————————————————-——————————————————-

 

It was late at night when a loud ruckus could be heard outside my room.

Wolfram had broken out of jail, and everyone was looking for him.

My retainers and I quickly gathered in front of the maou’s office.

“ Please your majesty, let me go first” - Pleaded Conrad - “I will take my best men and…”

“ You know I can’t do that. If Wolfram is… possessed by that thing in the box… Would you take his life?”

“ Would you?”

“ I need to go first ”

Ignoring his question I stomped towards the front door. I knew the answer to that, far too well.

When the door was opened for me, the dark landscape illuminated by the moon let us see a large cloud hovering over Shinou’s Shrine.

“ Figures. Look, Lord von Christ. Tell me, what do you see?”

“ This is….”

“ Is this not the action of the box? Since cremation is common in Shin Makoku we will not see crowds of zombie soldiers here as we saw in Seisakoku… oh right. You weren’t there Gunter, but I was. Lucky you! However it is clear that the box has been activated. Why would your beloved Shinou do this in our territory!?”

I’m sorry Gunter, but I need you on my side.

“We need to go at once, before he gets Wolfram and the rest of us killed!”

“ Shibuya… I’m on your side, always.”

The rest of the crowd agreed silently with Murata, and finally I was able to see a look I could trust in Gunter’s eyes.

“ I know, everyone, let’s go.”

Gwendal, Conrad, Gunter, Murata and Josak ran behind me. We gathered the horses and set off to the shrine. It wasn’t long before we were under the ominous looking cloud. We were met by some shrine maidens that tried to cut us off, but were quick to move away when I told them we were there to speak to Shinou.

We got in. Apparently they were also quite frightened about the cloud hovering over the shrine and having Daikenja on my side, they couldn’t turn us away.

We walked in and opened the doors to the praying quarters of the Priestess.

Inside were Shinou, Wolfram, the Priestess and an activated box.

“Wolf!?”

As I expected, Ulrike was part of it …

 

——————————————————-——————————————————-——————————————————-

 

It turns out that Ulrike had nothing to do with any of it. She was quick to ask for our help to stop the madness. Maybe she was really just clumsy after all….

“ You shouldn’t have come here” - said a possessed Wolfram

“ Wolfram! Wake up, it’s me! Yuuri”

“ I don’t know who you are, child, but I know what you smell like, and I might just want to end you right here”

“ Shinou! ” - Murata chimed in - “ Stop this!”

“ My dear Daikenja…. this is not my doing but the box’s! I was not expecting Wolfram to try and open it so soon, but he did…. and look how magnificent he is”

Shinou approached Wolfram and caressed his face, Wolfram let himself be pet like a loyal dog would only allow his master to pet him.

“ Shinou!!!!”

As quickly as I could, I used my water magic on him and made him back away. He might not feel a thing, but at least I could destroy his materialized body so that he could stop luring people into his traps.

Wolfram used his fire magic to attack me, but I could easily dodge them.

Conrad was quick to charge towards Shinou, sword in hand, followed by Josak, who never cared much for the god.  
As the attacks continued, Gwendal set up a barrier before me, so that Wolfram’s magic would be contained. Murata lent me his booster power and together we attacked Shinou…

Finally, it was a blast of my dragons and an attack my Conrad and Josak that destroyed the materialized body of the great Shinou … and then, everything turned pitch black…..

In this dark place…. there was a shining box, Wolfram, all the people I had brought with me and I…. and Shinou…. the Shinou whose body had been destroyed on the physical plane, was complete and nude before us.

“ Well, well, well…. Welcome!”

Conrad had to cover his mouth to keep himself from laughing but regained composure when I stared at him coldly.

“ This, you see… is my home. And in my home there are no particles that obey you…. no soil particles, no water particles… only the soushu in the fire box can attack you.”

“ Shinou!!! Stop this! This is the maou you chose!”

“ Well, he’s been poisoned! And so have all of you! Did you think you could oppose the Great One without suffering any consequences…!? And you, Daikenja. You…. you can stay by my side.”

“ Let him go!”

“ Mmhh.. and why should I?”

“ Because….”

Murata couldn’t think of anything else to say,

“ Because I’m asking you to. I will stay with you if you let them go….”

“ Oh, Daikenja, my brother…. How sweet you are. My little brother…. you will have no choice but to stay here anyways”

“ Shinou!”

“ Ahh! But you have really crossed the line Maou Yuuri. You really have. And for that I will give you the harshest punishment I can think of… To get killed by the one you love! My darling?”

“ Yes, dear?” - replied Wolfram to his newly given name.

“ End the life of this maou. Let me harvest his soul and try again”

“ Yes, dear”

Everyone ran and stood before me, in an attempt to protect me.

“ Don’t kill them yet, dear. Let them see their maou suffer before you kill them”

“ Yes, dear.”

In a second, he blasted away everyone who was standing before me. I ran away from Wolfram’s attacks the best I could.

“ Wolfram!!! Wolf!!!”

“ Stop saying that name, child. Your time is up, you better give in.”

“ Wolfram!!!!”

Suddenly two walls appeared behind me. I was cornered when I remembered what Murata had mentioned about the 'space’ making things appear if it was Shinou’s will.

“ Don’t be such a henachoko in your next life… I mean… crap!”

I really need to stop saying that, it’s rubbing off on everyone.

“ Dear, what did you say?”

“ Wolfram shoot him now!!!!”

Wolfram used his power redirected at Shinou, in the only chance he would get. Shinou who was now alerted was able to partially dodge the attack, however he was wounded.

“ Yuuri over there! ” - shouted Wolfram - “ His body! He keeps it there!!!!

He pointed to an area not too far, where something was shining. Gwendal, Conrad, and Josak helped me get to it.

” Traitoor!!!!!“

As Shinou battled now with the only opponent he had, Wolfram, we made our way towards the area where Shinou’s body was kept. The grossly putrid body was already in a liquid state, it couldn’t be taken out of the crystal coffin it was confined to.

Wolfram had told me all about it a few hours ago.

After I asked Gwendal to set up a magic barrier around Wolfram and I while I spoke to him in his cell, Wolfram told me everything that had happened. He talked about how he had been forced to keep the box a secret. How the attraction to it was impossible to resist at first, but was easier the longer he was close to it. He mentioned Shinou had threatened to kill me, and Greta and everyone in his family unless he complied. He talked about the 'space’. He talked about seeing Shinou’s body. He talked about having touched the box during practice…. and thinking he’d be able to push away all of those memories… and stay in control. And I trusted him and that trust had paid up.

We carried the crystal coffin full of putrid Shinou towards the box. We were going to dump him in there. As we struggled to carry the box, Shinou let himself get hit by one of Wolfram’s attacks but used the soil on the ground to make us all fall to our knees, and then punched me with such force I ended up at his feet. His foot was on my neck.

Wolfram stopped his attacks.

” So it seems I’m going to have to do all the dirty work….“

” Shinou, please!!!“ Was repeated over and over in different tones…. as Shinou laughed squeezing my neck with tremendous force, a blast of fire attacked him from behind and knocked him down.

Gunter, one of the few mazoku to be able to use the four elements, had positioned himself behind Shinou without being noticed and used the power from the box to attack him and save my life.

Wolfram ran to me, picked me up and took me behind the box in an attempt to keep me safe.

” Shinou’s body “ I whispered, which is when Lord von Christ ran to pick up the coffin with Conrad’s, Gwen’s and Josak’s help. And as they were about to dump the body into the box….. Murata aimed at Gunter’s feet and knocked him down along with the coffin.

” Dai… Daikenja!“

Shinou’s ghost eyes were full of tears. Can a ghost cry? Soon enough he blasted everyone away from the coffin, and locked it up behind four impenetrable walls.

What was I thinking? Of course he wasn’t going to let me kill his brother!!! Stupid! Stupid!!! How could I had been so stupid!?

"Shinou” - Murata ran to his side- “ Shinou, brother… stop this”

“ I knew… I knew your loyalty would always be to me, my little one”

Shinou put two fingers on Murata’s forehead and Murata lost consciousness…

With all my allies injured lying on the floor, and Wolfram having used up the last bit of his maryoku, Inferno on the Tundra slowly lost its shine and the lid closed.

“ Well, well….”- Shinou said -“ You two turned out to be more troublesome than I thought”

Wolfram, who despite having used up all his maryoku somehow remained conscious, and I , could do nothing but hold each other tight as a more darkened image of Shinou approached and we abandoned all hope.

 

——————————————————-——————————————————-——————————————————-

 

“Wolfram! ”

“Yuuri!”

As an invisible force tried to separate us, I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his shoulders.

“ Wolf!!!”

“ Yuuri, I just…”

“ I know”

“ I’m sorry!!”

“No, I’m sorry”

“Booo-hoo! What a touching scene. You’re both dead anyways. But I can’t possible decide which one should die first. ”

Conrad, Gwendal, and Gunter all tried to attack Shinou’s soul with their swords. Only to see themselves pass through him as if he wasn’t there at all. Eventually Shinou put them all behind bars, in a cage where they could do nothing but look at what was to come. Their pleas were unheard.

“ I should have married you”

“ Who cares!? Yuuri, I…!”

“ Don’t you dare, you slut!” -Shinou chimed and whatever hit Wolfram hit me too, on my legs and arms which were wrapping around him…. the punch made us fly back 6 feet, the box before us, tossed around like a toy flew so far away we couldn’t even see it.

“ Ah…. I see ”

Wolfram and I panicked wondering which one he’d take first.

“ Someone you both love”

“ Shinou!!!! Bastard!”

“ You can’t !!!!”

“ Oh, but I can.”

Amidst the landscape of the dark room we could see something similar to a blurry door open, and behind it, the inside of Anissina’s laboratory.

“ Fuck you Shinou!!! Greta run!!!”

But it was too late, we couldn’t stop him, Anissina couldn’t stop him, and after snatching Greta by the neck, the door closed behind him.

Wolfram and I let go of each other at once, and charged towards him in whatever fashion we could.

Shinou laughed as he created a force field that wouldn’t let us through, but would let us see our beloved daughter scared to death, in tears.

“Otousama, daddy!!!!!”- She screamed at the top of her lungs.

“ Shinou, I’ll do it ”. I fell to my knees. “ I’ll go to war if that’s what you want, I’ll make mazoku kill humans… just, please, please let her go”

“ Hmm… and you think I was born yesterday? You’re thinking about that forbidden box of yours and how you’ll use it to try and destroy me… No, thank you. I will torture this girl before your eyes, then I will torture those four in that box, and then…. yeah… I’ll think about what to do with you two after you’re dead… I don’t think you are getting reborn for a while… Until you learn some manners that is.”

“ Please don’t kill me, Mr. Shinou-sama!!!” - Greta was crying so desperately, that it made Wolfram and I try even harder to get through the force field he had created. Our baby, she was right before us!

And as Shinou laughed at the despair in our cries and eyes, his laughing face suddenly lost its smile as something was plunged into his chest.

A piece of crystal in the shape of a vial was inserted right in the middle of his chest, and as he followed the hand that was holding it, he encountered a wide smile surrounded by bronze locks. And as her lips parted still in a smile she said,

“ I’M A TRAP GIRL!”

Shinou opened his mouth as if to scream, but the vial quickly absorbed his essence and was completely sucked into it. As Greta’s body was slowly lowered to the floor, she took the lid of the vial out of her pocket and closed it.

The force field that was stopping us from reaching her disappeared and we ran to her and held her so tight it felt as if our three bodies would merge into one under the pressure. Soon the cage where Conrad, Josak, Gwendal, and Gunter were trapped disappeared, and then we found ourselves floating near the ceiling of the praying quarters of the Priestess. We were all falling from a considerable height, but Lord von Christ, used a current of wind to make us all float safely to the floor.

Unfortunately, the crystal coffin wasn’t counted as a plus one, and ended up getting smashed against the floor of the Priestess quarter. A moldy green substance splashed against the walls and floor, luckily, far away enough from any of us. The stench was unbearable, and that room would forever be locked down, even after it was thoroughly cleaned.

“Otousama, daddy!!!”

Wolfram and I just cried over our daughter as we covered her in kisses. Finally Gwendal asked

“ What did you do !?”

“ When I was in Anissina’s laboratory, she figured out what was going on. She knew that if father thought I needed protecting something terrible would be coming my way. And since Shinou was the only new being that had appeared recently, she adjusted a prototype she had prepared just in case she would ever need to harvest a soul. 'After all a soul is just a soul’, she said! She told me how to operate it and well…. the rest was just a little bit of acting! I wasn’t scared at all!! Sorry for worrying you”

Wolfram and I shared a proud look as if saying: “This really is a demon child, the demon king’s child!” and despite us always having been opposed to Anissina’s teaching, we could finally see, how this saved our precious princess, and oh, right, our lives too by the way.

 

——————————————————-——————————————————-

 

As news of the Priestess and shrine maidens abandoning the shrine began to spread, and before the validity of the position of the maou began to be questioned, I decided to hold elections where everyone over the age of 16 could vote.

To this date I’ve won every election that was held every 20 years, with more than 90% of the votes.

Soon someone else will take my place, but I don’t worry about the future of Shin Makoku. After all, all of these candidates that will be running for maou once I’m gone are highly educated and have grown up in a country that has championed peace for centuries.

As for Shinou…. he was our Greta’s greatest trophy and we didn’t have the heart to take it away from her. So we let her keep it, and then, her children and their children kept passing the soul of Shinou in a vial, the story behind it ever-changing.

Sleep well, Shinou. A new great-grandchild was born not long ago, so it seems you’ll be working as a sleeping buddy for this one, too.

That is, until you learn some manners.

 

 

The end


End file.
